Plastic Pilot

One of the important roles of a pilot’s logbook is to keep track of all examination flights, endorsements and ratings. Some are simply signed by the examiner, others come with a stamp. In all cases, a form is sent to the administration that issued the license, but a long term mark is also left in the logbook.

I got the first stamp below after my very first examination flight, which validated the first part of my basic training. After that, I was the proud holder of a Restricted Private Pilot License. This is a swiss national rating, whose privileges include flying to non-controlled airports (except the place where the pilot got his / her training), outside of controlled airspace, and within Switzerland only. For obvious privacy reasons, I blurred out the examiner’s name and license number.

I flew with that rating for 10 months, building some experience, and training towards the full JAR PPL. This involved more radio-navigation, radio-communication, and a longer solo navigation. That second rating  allowed me to fly in all Europa.

There is another souvenir of this flight in my logook: a post-it like instrument cover that the instructor used to simulate an airspeed indicator failure during one of the landings. I kept it as a precious trophy earned on a particularly warm summer day.

As you probably already noticed, I’m rather proud of the next one. There is no stamp, but a simple endorsement by the examiner, but later on a new line was printed in my license: IR(A), standing for Instrument Rating. I still consider getting and holding this rating as a great achievement, even if I can’t use it a lot nowadays.

Instruments ratings have to be renewed every year through an examination flight, so I already renewed it three times. The last time was during the FADEC challenge, flying on a DA40-TDI with G1000 - a state of the art aircraft when it comes to modern airframes, engines and avionics.

I’m wondering where my next IFR renewal flight will take place. Switzerland ? Germany ? France ? Some new place ? Will that be a flight on a good old PA28 ? A PA32 ? A DA40 with G1000 ? A Cirrus ? If you’ve something to propose, I’m open to anything.

Stamps of some swiss airports I visited.

In an older post, I wrote about what is left when the aircraft is back to its hangar, at home-base: souvenirs, and possibly new stamps in my logbook. Yes, I’m one of these pilots getting their logbook stamped when they visit new airports.

Other important stamps are those collected after examination flights (PPL, IR, renewals, …), but this is not the topic for today. The gallery below contains photos of some swiss airports and airfields. The Grenchen (LSZG) one is also signed by the person on duty when I flew there, as it was part of my solo navigation, with Bern (LSZB).

Yverdon (LSGY) has also a special place: it is the first airport I flew to, after completing the basic part of the training (including solo) in Geneva. Neuchâtel (LSGN) and Les Eplatures (LSGC) are the two first airports I discovered all by myself, after getting my license.

Lugano (LSZA) and Samedan (LSZS) were collected on the same day, when I flew Lausanne - Lugano - Samedan - Altenrhein - Bern - Lausanne with a friend. At three airports I flew to (Zurich (LSZH), Prangins (LSGP), Saanen (LSGK)) I forgot to stamp my logbook, or there was no stamp available.

Another one that I missed it the “Lac Noir”, the frozen lake which can in rare occasions be used as an airport. There was a stamp there, but I was so impressed and amazed that I did not even think of having my logbook stamped. Doh !

In a next post, I’ll share photos of stamps I collected in other countries, and also stamps and endorsements for the various ratings I hold. If you have some that you want to share, send a picture to me, I’ll be happy to publish them.

Do you know Brownian motion, the apparently random motion animating molecules which constantly move but stay around the same position ? Flying is quite similar…

I logged 348:55 hours in 423 flights. I operated in 39 different airports. Because I swapped seats a lot with fellow pilots, there are 3 airports where I did only land, and 3 other from which I only took-off. I landed in and took-off from the 33 others. I flew 113 different “departure - destination” combinations. This looks like Brownian motion…

Why doing that ? What is left in the end ? Passengers bring photos and videos back. As pilots, we make entries in our logbooks, one for each flight. Personally I add remarks like name of passengers, or important figures, like 500th landing, or 300th hour.

I also get my logbook stamped each time I land in a new airport. This is quite common practice in Europe: pay the landing fee, stamp the logbook. I will soon post scanned pages of my logbook with my favorite stamps: Biggin-Hill, White Waltham in UK (far away for me), but also Samedan (higher airport in Europe) and the page of my first solo, and initial IFR check.

Flipping my logbook’s pages bring many pleasant, stressful, interesting and happy moments back. In my opinion, this is the most valuable thing remaining after all these flying hours. All the money spent for these 423 flights was really worth it - however I’ve never been brave enough to sum it all

If you have special, exotic, or simply important stamps in your logbook you want to share, please e-mail them to me (see About Me page for my address), I’ll be happy to publish them together with extracts from my logbook.